Festive Bakes to Delight You this Christmas

Christmas is a time for friends, family, and perhaps most importantly, good food. Almost all university students will soon be pooling a little money together to buy what can only be described as a gross interpretation of the traditional meal. Sure, there are a few students who can afford turkey, but most of us will be gather around the cheapest bit of meat we can find, with the remaining vegetables from our freezers and maybe some Yorkshire puddings if somebody’s mum paid for their shopping recently.

Despite this, a Christmas dinner is an integral part of your university experience. Each person will have their own demands; so much so that you’ll finally be able to understand Monica’s struggle in that Thanksgiving episode of ‘Friends’. As such, here are a few Christmas side dishes and desserts that will hopefully be cheap and delicious enough to make the joint effort, and subsequent falling outs, worthwhile.

DIY Mince Pies

Ingredients:

• Pre-made shortcrust pastry
• -Mincemeat
• 1 Egg
• Icing Sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
2. Grease the bases and sides of a muffin tray.
3. Roll out the pastry until the thickness is roughly half a centimetre.
4. Cut into circles slightly bigger than the size of the tray holes; use the bottom of a bottle if you have no cutter.
5. Place the circles into the greased tray, and using a small spoon, place some mincemeat into each.
6. Re-roll the leftover pastry, and cut them into tops for your pies, and place them on top, pinching the edges down onto the bottom
7. Whisk the egg, and gently brush it over the top of the mince pies and bake for 20 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius.
8. Sprinkle the tops with sugar.

Cheesy Stars

Ingredients:

• 320g Puff Pastry sheet
• 90g of grated cheese (any is fine)
• Flour
• Milk

Method:

1. Unroll the pastry and sprinkle most of the cheese over one half of the sheet. Fold the pastry in half to cover cheese.
2. Roll out the sheet until it has doubled in size.
3. Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, and line two baking trays with baking paper.
4. Using cookie cutters, or something similar, cut the pastry into shapes and place them on the sheets.
5. Brush the shapes with milk, and add a sprinkling of cheese.
6. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, and serve.

Christmas Tart

Ingredients:

• 320g Puff Pastry
• Olive oil
• 3 large onions
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 Apple
• 100g Cranberry sauce
• 175g brie

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius
2. Unroll the pastry sheet onto a large baking tray leaving the paper on, and score a border about 1cm from the edge.
3. Lightly score the pastry sheet so it doesn’t rise too much, and bake for 15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large pan and cook the onions for around 10-15 minutes. Stir in the vinegar for another minute. Slice the apple thinly and toss them in.
5. The pastry should now be puffed and starting to colour. Push the centre down and spread over the onions. Add blobs of the cranberry sauce, then top with the apple and slices of brie, overlapping them to cover the whole tart.
6. Drizzle a little oil over, and bake for a further 20-25 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbling and the apple slices are soft.